Consolidated comparable sales up 0.8% in the fourth quarter, and 2.2% for the full year:

Canadian Tire up 0.2% in Q4 and 2.1% for the full year

SportChek up 2.5% in Q4 and 2.0% for the full year

Mark's up 1.8% in Q4 and 2.8% for the full year

Financial Services GAAR growth up 11.6% in Q4 and 10.7% for 2018

Fourth quarter diluted earnings per share (EPS) was $4.78, an increase of 16.6%, normalized; full year diluted EPS was $11.95, an increase of 12.0%, normalized

TORONTO, Feb. 14, 2019/CNW/ - Canadian Tire Corporation, Limited (TSX:CTC, TSX:CTC.a) today released fourth quarter and full year results for the period ended December 29, 2018.

"2018 was an exceptional year for Canadian Tire. We maintained our leading brand position in Canadian retail, while investing for our future," said Stephen Wetmore, President and CEO, Canadian Tire Corporation.

"We succeeded in advancing our One Company strategy by creating Canada's fastest growing credit card and loyalty offering with Triangle Rewards. Adding Helly Hansen to our family has strengthened our owned brands offering while providing a platform for international expansion. At CTR, our largest retail banner, eCommerce offerings, including click and collect and home delivery, are receiving exceptional customer satisfaction scores and the strength of our operations allowed us to increase our dividend for the ninth consecutive year," continued Wetmore.

"Today we are also announcing that Dean McCann, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, has informed us of his intention to retire from his role as of December 31, 2019. Dean has been with Canadian Tire since 1996, was appointed CFO in 2012 and in 2015, was named CFO of the Year. Over the years, Dean's assistance to me and his many contributions to the Company have been invaluable. He has been instrumental to the growth of Canadian Tire," said Wetmore.

"I am extremely pleased to announce that post-retirement, Dean has agreed to remain on the Boards of Canadian Tire Bank and CT REIT," added Wetmore.

CONSOLIDATED OVERVIEW

FOURTH QUARTER

Consolidated retail sales increased $38.4 millionin the fourth quarter, or 0.8% over the same period in 2017. Excluding Petroleum, consolidated retail sales were up 1% over the same period last year.

Income before income taxes decreased $22.3 million or 3.2%. Normalized income before income taxes increased by $9.2 million or 1.3%.

CT REIT OVERVIEW

As disclosed in the Q4 and year-end 2018 CT REIT earnings release on February 11, 2019, CT REIT invested $142 million and added over 680,000 square feet of gross leasable area (GLA) in 2018, including approximately 110,000 square feet of GLA in the fourth quarter.

FINANCIAL SERVICES OVERVIEW

Income before income taxes increased $2.6 million, or 2.8% in the fourth quarter, and increased $4.0 million, and 1.0%, for the full year over 2017. Normalized income before income taxes increased 4.5% for the full year.

Revenue grew 10.2% in the quarter, and 8.9% full year over the prior year.

Gross average credit card receivables (GAAR) was up 11.6% in Q4 and for the full year GAAR was up 10.7% over 2017.

CAPITAL ALLOCATION

CAPITAL EXPENDITURES

Total operating capital expenditures were $448.4 million for the year, up from $384.2 million in 2017, and slightly below the previously disclosed range of $450 million to $500 million.

For fiscal 2019, the Company expects annual operating capital expenditures to be within the range of $475 million to $550 million.

QUARTERLY DIVIDEND

On February 13, 2019, the Company declared dividends payable to holders of Class A Non-Voting Shares and Common Shares at a rate of $1.0375 per share payable on June 1, 2019 to shareholders of record as of April 30, 2019. The dividend is considered an "eligible dividend" for tax purposes.

SHARE REPURCHASE

On November 8, 2018, the Company announced its intention to purchase $300-400 million of its Class A Non-Voting Shares (the "2019 Share Purchase Intention"), in excess of the amount required for anti-dilutive purposes, by the end of 2019. To date, the Company has purchased $231.2million of Class A Non-Voting Shares in partial fulfilment of its 2019 Share Purchase Intention, leaving $68.8-$168.8million that is expected to be purchased during the remainder of fiscal 2019.

NORMAL COURSE ISSUER BID

The Company announced its intention to make a normal course issuer bid (the "2019 NCIB") to purchase from March 2, 2019 to March 1, 2020 up to 5.5 million Class A Non-Voting Shares, which represents 9.8% of the 55.9 million approximate public float of Class A Non-Voting Shares issued and outstanding as at February 13, 2019. There were 58,771,660 Class A Non-Voting Shares issued and outstanding as at February 13, 2019.

The Company intends to purchase Class A Non-Voting Shares under the 2019 NCIB for two purposes: (i) to fulfill the 2019 Share Purchase Intention as part of its capital management plan; and (ii) to offset the dilutive effect of the issuance of Class A Non-Voting Shares pursuant to its dividend reinvestment and stock option plans, consistent with the Company's policy.

Purchases of Class A Non-Voting Shares pursuant to the 2019 NCIB will be made by means of open market transactions through the facilities of the TSX and/or alternative Canadian trading systems, if eligible, at the market price of the Class A Non-Voting Shares at the time of purchase or as otherwise permitted under the rules of the TSX and applicable securities laws. Purchases may also be made by way of private agreements or share repurchase programs under issuer bid exemption orders issued by securities regulatory authorities. Any private purchase made under an exemption order issued by a securities regulatory authority will generally be at a discount to the prevailing market price.

For open market transactions, the Company will be subject to a daily purchase limit of 59,470 Class A Non-Voting Shares, which represents 25% of 237,880, the average daily trading volume of the Class A Non-Voting Shares on the TSX, net of purchases made by the Company through the TSX, for the six months ended January 31, 2019. The Class A Non-Voting Shares purchased by the Company pursuant to the 2019 NCIB will be restored to the status of authorized but unissued shares.

The Company also announced that it will enter into an automatic share purchase plan (the "ASPP") with its designated broker to facilitate purchases of Class A Non-Voting Shares under the 2019 NCIB at times when the Company would not ordinarily be permitted to make such purchases due to its internal trading black-out periods or applicable regulatory restrictions. Purchases made pursuant to the ASPP will be made by the Company's designated broker based upon the parameters prescribed by the TSX, applicable Canadian securities laws and the terms of the written agreement between the Company and its designated broker. The ASPP will commence on March 2, 2019 and terminate on the earliest of the date on which: (i) the purchase limit under the 2019 NCIB has been reached; (ii) the 2019 NCIB expires; and (iii) the Company terminates the ASPP in accordance with its terms. The ASPP constitutes an "automatic securities purchase plan" under applicable Canadian securities laws.

The Company's proposed 2019 NCIB and ASPP are subject to regulatory approval.

Under the Company's normal course issuer bid which began on March 2, 2018 and expires on March 2, 2019 (the "2018 NCIB"), the Company received approval to purchase up to 5.9 million Class A Non-Voting Shares. To date, the Company has purchased a total of 3,878,411 Class A Non-Voting Shares by means of open market transactions through the facilities of the TSX and/or alternative Canadian trading systems under the Company's 2018 NCIB, at the volume weighted average price of $157.40.

This press release contains forward-looking information that reflects management's current expectations related to matters such as future financial performance and operating results of the Company. Forward-looking statements are provided for the purposes of providing information about management's current expectations and plans and allowing investors and others to get a better understanding of our anticipated financial position, results of operations and operating environment. Readers are cautioned that such information may not be appropriate for other purposes.

Certain statements other than statements of historical facts included in this press release may constitute forward-looking information, including but not limited to, statements concerning the Company's expectations with respect to its capital expenditures for fiscal 2019 under the heading "Capital Expenditures", the Company's intention to repurchase certain of its Class A Non-Voting Shares, in excess of the amount required for anti-dilutive purposes, by the end of 2019 under the heading "Share Repurchase" and statements concerning the Company's intention to make a normal course issuer bid with respect to the purchase of its Class A Non-Voting Shares and to enter into an automatic securities purchase plan pursuant to which the Company's designated broker may purchase Class A Non-Voting Shares under the Company's normal course issuer bid, under the heading "Normal Course Issuer Bid".

By its very nature, forward-looking information requires us to make assumptions and is subject to inherent risks and uncertainties, which give rise to the possibility that the Company's assumptions, estimates, analyses, beliefs and opinions may not be correct and that the Company's expectations and plans will not be achieved. Although the Company believes that the forward-looking information in this press release is based on information, assumptions and beliefs which are current, reasonable and complete, this information is necessarily subject to a number of factors, risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from management's expectations and plans as set forth in such forward-looking information.

For more information on the risks, uncertainties and assumptions that could cause the Company's actual results to differ from current expectations, refer to section 2.8 (Risk Factors) of our Annual Information Form for fiscal 2018 and to sections 7.2.4 (Retail Segment Business Risks), 7.3.2 (CT REIT Segment Business Risks), 7.4.3 (Financial Services Segment Business Risks) and 12 (Risks and Risk Management) and all subsections thereunder of our Management's Discussion and Analysis for the year ended December 29, 2018, as well as the Company's other public filings, available at www.sedar.com and at www.corp.canadiantire.ca.

The forward-looking statements and information contained herein are based on certain factors and assumptions as of the date hereof and do not take into account the effect that transactions or non-recurring or other special items announced or occurring after the statements are made have on the Company's business. The Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking information, whether written or oral, that may be made from time to time by it or on its behalf, to reflect new information, future events or otherwise, except as is required by applicable securities laws.

CONFERENCE CALL

Canadian Tire will conduct a conference call to discuss information included in this news release and related matters at 8:00 a.m. ET on February 14, 2019. The conference call will be available simultaneously and in its entirety to all interested investors and the news media through a webcast at http://corp.canadiantire.ca/EN/investors and will be available through replay at this website for 12 months.

ABOUT CANADIAN TIRE CORPORATION

Canadian Tire Corporation, Limited, (TSX: CTC.A) (TSX: CTC) or "CTC", is a family of businesses that includes a Retail segment, a Financial Services division and CT REIT. Our retail business is led by Canadian Tire, which was founded in 1922 and provides Canadians with products for life in Canada across its Living, Playing, Fixing, Automotive and Seasonal & Gardening divisions. PartSource and Gas+ are key parts of the Canadian Tire network. The Retail segment also includes Mark's, a leading source for casual and industrial wear; Pro Hockey Life, a hockey specialty store catering to elite players; and SportChek, Hockey Experts, Sports Experts, National Sports, Intersport and Atmosphere, which offer the best active wear brands. The 1,700 retail and gasoline outlets are supported and strengthened by our Financial Services division and the tens of thousands of people employed across Canada and around the world by the Company and its local dealers, franchisees and petroleum retailers. In addition, Canadian Tire Corporation owns and operates Helly Hansen, a leading global brand in sportswear and workwear based in Oslo, Norway. For more information, visit Corp.CanadianTire.ca.